By Julius Ogar
If ever there was a land of milk and honey, I no longer envision it outside the shores of Nigeria: Arable land, mineral resources, an enterprising population and in great numbers to booth, and just about every variable that makes a nation great. Regrettably, we have been a pitiable lot, poverty stricken and short in every indicator
of development.
Inversely, we have acquired a reputation for vice and impunity.
Our capacity for absurdities is replete on the streets where we dump refuse; in the offices where public servants seat idly by leaving files untreated; on the highways where reckless driving is a sport; in the practice of our religions where the capacity to shout colourful phrases is a measure of piousness.
Under some pretext, the police were let loose on members of the National Assembly in a botched attempt to force the impeachment of Speaker Waziri Tambuwal. The plot became so glaringly stupid as the Inspector General assumed the role of the judiciary in interpreting the constitution to the benefit of the forces that wanted Tambuwal removed. The police, alongside the SSS, have for long tested the bounds of impunity in various guises, not the least disgusting and partisan of which were several attempts to hush up or disband the #BringBackOurGirls# campaigners who had become an embarrassment to the conscience of the government.
Lying and propaganda became the biggest enterprises in town. Fly-by-night ambassadors collected eight million signatures; manufactured tens of thousands of kilometres of completed roads; schools/universities, textile industries and sundry projects the government had executed and made known exclusively to just these agents of transformation. They lied and re-lied to the gullible and smiled to their banks; but we waited with hunger and anger as their sponsors drew up austerity measures for us. Then our day came:
The March 28 elections were a watershed. Long before the elections, one had become worried that petty interests, sentiments, and nepotism were having an upper hand over reason, logic and patriotism. The heightened propaganda and hate campaigns dominating the media were pushing emotions dangerously to the brink. For the ruling party suddenly stung into hyper activity by a determined and better organised opposition, desperation went into full swing and nothing was sacred in the quest to retain power.
From the onset, one’s choice was clear between two contestants – one throwing money like sweets at a park of hungry children; and the other who said: I have no money to give you and even if I had, I will not give you because the destiny of Nigeria is not negotiable”.
It was glaring that a government which had this same election as a stimulant to demonstrate credible leadership but failed to do so, will waste the next four years ruining the economy further and extending the bounds of corruption and impunity if given another chance. It was obvious the incumbent and his minders never really gave a damn about governance and accountability.
There thinking seemed to be that these were the same Nigerians that they could incite with religion and tribe or simply bribe out of their senses.
It was with these and many more misgivings that one hoped and prayed that the country gets saved from the blight of people seeking power but shirking the responsibility that goes with it. The outgoing administration has been a roller coaster ride for sycophants and characters that should be securely kept behind prison bars.
We have paid dearly for being gullible and allowing politics to trump patriotism. We have wasted much time and resources doing nothing and going nowhere. We almost lost a part of our country to criminal insurgents, and have lost our status as the beacon of hope for the black man. We have lost our common wealth to unspeakable corruption – the sickening type which former EFCC chair, Madam Farida Waziri, referred to as a “compulsive acquisitive syndrome”.
But graciously (I hope), the choice Nigerians made on March 28 should finally lead us out of the woods. One expects that in a not too distant time, Nigeria should regain the capacity to refine its own petroleum products; that the difference between subsidy and no subsidy on petroleum becomes as clear as spring water; that the textile factories which have remained shut despite billions of “revival funds” allegedly pumped into them open up again; that electricity comes back through the grid instead of generators; that public servants and politicians begin to fear the possible consequences of stealing or corruption; that governance becomes a responsibility and not a favour which the governors dispense to their subjects; that public schools, hospitals regain the confidence of one and all;
that those who report crime no longer have to retreat into hiding while the culprits get conferred with national honours; and that Nigerians may no longer be treated to a regime of lies and subterfuge in the name of governance, etc, etc.
Our real status as the Giant of Africa beckons and in the fullness of time, we shall become a great nation by the Almighty’s grace. The world has been waiting and is still waiting for our dear country – the land of the Niger Area. It is time to move forward!
Ogar wrote from Abuja